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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921814">Lean on Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/mefeather/pseuds/mefeather'>mefeather</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>2020 NCIS Happy Holidays Advent Challenge [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hawaii Five-0 (2010), NCIS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Friendship, Gen, Melancholy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:15:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/mefeather/pseuds/mefeather</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Tony found out that Vance had listened very carefully to what he had said about family.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>2020 NCIS Happy Holidays Advent Challenge [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036341</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Lean on Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL4ei-RE3Nc">Lean on Me by Bill Withers</a> was the inspiration for the story and it's where I got the title from.</p><p>I'm not sure I should add a warning, but I will tell that this story deals with melancholy, being on the verge of a breakdown because of being overworked and what might help to deal with it in a way. It's nothing really hardcore about that but if that subject bothers or trigger you you might want to click the return button.</p><p>For the 2020 Happy Holidays Challenge - Challenge 1: Themes</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony sighed.</p><p>He had worked all the days through December 24th. He had no fresh groceries in the fridge since he hadn’t had the time to even shop online for them. Now it was Christmas Eve. No reservations for a restaurant and nothing noteworthy in his fridge. He checked the freezer. Score! He still had two portions of stew, three portions of lasagna and some soup. Now he could at least get through Christmas day without having to beg with friends or neighbours for something to eat.</p><p>He picked a portion of lasagna, heated it in the oven and poored some red wine for himself. He ate with gusto.</p><p>Luckily the work frenzy the last few weeks meant that he would be free until January 5th. To make sure he couldn’t be called by anyone at work. Literally. He made sure to switch off his cellphone. Vance had made his leave mandatory but Tony didn’t trust Gibbs and his colleagues to ignore that when it was in their own favour. He told Vance about that and so they had come up with the idea of him turning off his phone from the moment he walked out of the office until the morning of January 5th.</p><p>He had a private cellphone the others didn’t know about and he had given the number to Vance for emergencies. Because he had planned to also turn off his landline. Vance would make sure that the persons who would make sure the calls for crime scenes put those calls through to anyone but Tony on the MCRT until Tony would return to work again.</p><p>Tony was glad that Vance was on his side with this. He had opened up to the director eventually because he felt he was on the brink of a breakdown. A breakdown from which he knew the only way to recover was sending in his resignation if there was no way of trying to recover. Gibbs was untolerably ignoring all things that didn’t concern working the current case. The others just followed Gibbs to a fashion. Tony also had talked about the people he considered family. He told Vance that yes his father was still alive but he was just not a person he wanted to have in his life permanently. Another male role model who ignored everything that wasn’t in his own favour. Both Gibbs and his father ignored Tony’s wishes for their own convenience.</p><p>He knew he should do something about his melancholy. Nothing good would come if he kept following this train of thought. So he washed the dishes. Poored another glass of wine and played the piano. It made his thoughts wander in every direction but work and that was exactly what he needed right now.</p><p>He was surprised when at 10 PM someone rang the frontdoor bell. He hoped it was nobody from work. He hesitated but peaked through the mirror he had installed on the outside of the window in the kitchen so he could see who was at the door without having to use a peephole and saw he had visitors he was actually very happy with.</p><p>He almost skipped to his front door and opened it wide. ‘Steve, Kono, Chin, Danny and Gracie, I didn’t expect you guys but I’m very happy to see you!’</p><p>The visitors all stepped in side and followed him to the living room. ‘Hey, Tony, we couldn’t wait to come visit you. Your director told us a lot about the stress in the last few weeks so he asked if we would be available for some cheering up. We are all good at cheering someone up but Gracie is fantastic with that so we thought we all made the trip to you. Celebrate Christmas and New Years Eve together and do some sightseeing before flying back to Hawaii.’</p><p>‘I love that plan.’</p><p>Tony felt better already. He was going to have to do something nice for Vance because telling him that the H50 Taskforce plus Gracie were his family had made a huge difference already.</p>
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